-Caveat Lector-
Wednesday March 21 01:33 PM EST
Chinese Scholar Based in U.S. Is Held for 5 Weeks by Beijing
By ERIK ECKHOLM The New York Times
A Chinese scholar based in the United States has been held in Beijing in
isolation for more than five weeks on suspicion of "activities damaging
state security," the authorities acknowledged.
BEIJING, March 21 A Chinese scholar based in the United States has been held
here in isolation for more than five weeks because of "activities damaging
state security," the authorities acknowledged today.
Her husband and 5-year-old son were held separately for 26 days, unable to
see each other, before they were freed on March 8 and returned to the United
States.
The boy is an American citizen but the American Embassy here was not
notified of his detention, in violation of an agreement between the two
countries.
Gao Zhan, a sociologist with a temporary appointment at American University
in Washington, D.C., was detained by state security officers with her
husband, Xue Donghua, and son, Andrew Xue, at the Beijing airport on Feb.
11. The family was returning home from a three-week visit, according to Mr.
Xue.
"From 11 February until now I have never seen my wife, and I have no idea
what has happened to her," Mr. Xue said in a statement distributed today by
Human Rights in China, a private group based in New York.
The agreement between the United States and China requires that the embassy
be told within four days when an American citizen is held. Ms. Gao and her
husband are permanent residents of the United States, in line to become
citizens.
A spokesman for the United States Embassy here said that Mr. Xue's statement
"is consistent with our understanding of the events," and that the embassy
takes seriously any violations of the notification agreement. But he
declined to comment further on the case because of American privacy laws.
News of the detentions coincides with a visit to New York and Washington of
a top Chinese foreign policy official, Deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen,
seeking to smooth Chinese-American relations. Along with Mr. Xue's statement
today, the group Human Rights in China also released a copy of a letter it
has sent to President Bush asking him to raise the case of Ms. Gao in his
meeting with Mr. Qian, scheduled for Thursday.
Mr. Xue, a computer systems analyst with Electronic Database System, an
American company, said he was kept for 26 days in a single room, with no
reading materials or television, and that his requests to make telephone
calls and see a lawyer were refused. He said he had immediately informed his
captors that their child was an American citizen.
Told that the boy was held in a Government nursery, Mr. Xue "demanded that
they allow my son to stay with one of us, or at least that he be sent to my
parents or in-laws" in China, he said. But the officials refused and "they
told me that the only way I could see my son was if I told them more
unfavorable stories about my wife," he said.
"I have never believed that my wife could do anything wrong to oppose the
Chinese Government," he said. "I am totally convinced of my wife's
innocence."
"She remains detained for no reason and with no legal procedures," he said,
The circumstances of her detention, and those of Mr. Xue he was not allowed
to contact his family or employer or to consult a lawyer appear to violate
Chinese law as well as internationally accepted legal norms.
Ms. Gao received a doctorate in sociology from Syracuse University in 1997,
writing her dissertation on marital problems among Chinese students in the
United States.
Last fall she received a one-year unpaid appointment as a faculty research
fellow at American University's School of International Service, according
to Todd Sedmak, the university spokesman.
Mr. Xue said that in the initial days of his detention he was questioned
about his wife's research and about visits she made to Taiwan in 1995 and
1999. Ms. Gao is treasurer of the Association of Chinese Political Studies,
a professional group of mainly Chinese-born scholars working abroad, and she
was part of an academic delegation from that group that visited Taiwan in
1999 to discuss issues in relations between the mainland and Taiwan.
Pressed by reporters today, China's foreign ministry issued a brief
statement: "Chinese citizen Gao Zhan was involved in activities damaging
state security and relevant authorities are investigating her according to
China's criminal law."
It gave no information about her alleged violations but, as is common in
cases involving state security here, the official statement essentially
declared her guilty before she has been indicted or tried.
Her detention is the third recent incident in which Chinese scholars
permanently living in the United States, and nearing a change in
citizenship, have been held here on security charges.
Song Yongyi, a librarian at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, was detained
for more than five months and formally charged with "providing confidential
materials to foreigners" during a visit to gather materials about Mao
Zedong's Cultural Revolution. He was released in January 2000 after an
outcry from leading American scholars.
Hua Di, a nuclear weapons expert at Stanford University, was lured back to
China with false promises of security in 1998 and arrested for revealing
state secrets. Last fall he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
--
"Those who want to hear the voice of pagan gods in wind or thunder, who
want to see the fairies dance in the moonlight, who can believe that
faith can move mountains, can follow the thread on the pages of this
book. It is a fragile thread; it cannot bear the weight of facts and
dates"
-Kate Seredy, "The White Stag"
ICQ: 9815080 Operator Taliesin_2 of #SacredNemeton on IRC PaganPaths
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